So Yeezy: A Very Definitive Ranking of Kanye West Albums.

So let's talk about Kanye West.

"Why?" you might ask. Because while he may be a man lost in his own illusions of grandeur and ego, he is still undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians of this generation. Because he has had eight consecutive solo albums go #1. Because despite the notorious racism of the Grammy's, Kanye still has twenty-one of them. That's seven times more than Pink Floyd, more than twice as many as Taylor Swift, and only one less than Michael Jackson and the Beatles combined. Because his albums are so unique they are comparable only to the far reaching, genre bending, character-creating discography of David Bowie. Because without Kanye West there is no Drake, Chance the Rapper, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, Cyhi the Prynce, Travis Scott, J. Cole, Bon Iver, Big Sean, Chief Keef, or Nicki Minaj. Honestly, that list is probably much longer, but you get the point. We must talk about Kanye, because, for better or for worse, he is everywhere. Oh, and also his music fucking rocks.

"So, why rank his albums?" Well, quite frankly, because it's fun. And it's difficult. I go back and forth a lot. Hell, in this list you won't even see Watch the Throne, Kanye's collab album with Jay-Z, or Kids See Ghosts, his collab album with Kid Cudi, because fitting those into the discussion with his eight solo albums is just too mind boggling. Their placements shift too much, and weighing the influence of the album's counterparts makes it less fun. Like WTT would be higher in my personal rankings if Jay-Z were better on it, but he's not, and that overshadows whatever I think of Kanye's role on the album (which also isn't great). Like I said, it's just too messy. So I'm sticking to Kanye's eight solo albums. And this will be fun, cause you'll either hate my list or you won't care at all. Either way it will be an entertaining walk down music history lane, a lane paved by a very definitive ranking of Kanye West albums. Enough talking, let's get into it.

8. Yeezus (2013)

"He'll give us what we need. It may not be what we want."

I like this album a lot. Like a lot, a lot. But it's totally, completely, utterly garbage. It's really not good. 

Kanye's ten song, industrial and experimental hip-hop album features some of his worst lines rapped over minimalist beats. Minimalism was kind of a theme for the album, I mean look at the album cover. It's just a fucking CD in a plastic case. Anyway, as for the lyrics, here's a few handpicked selections:

• "I am a God. So hurry up with my damn massage. In a French ass restaurant. Hurry up with my damn croissants." 
• "Uh, black girl sippin' white wine. Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign." (This whole song, "I'm In It," is so laughably bad, but this line is especially painful.)
• "Blocka, blocka, blocka-blocka, blocka." (An actual line.)
• "I wanna fuck you hard on the sink. After that, give you somethin' to drink." (I don't care what you think, "Bound 2" is one of the worst songs in Kanye's whole discography and this line proves it.)
• "She got more n***as off than Cochran, hah! On sight! On sight!" (Okay, I actually really like this line. It's just such a solid reference.)

Back to the point at hand though, at best you can only listen to half the album in good conscious. (I'm including some kind of throw-away song here to make it 5 good/5 bad, but in reality it's more like 4 good/6 really bad.) "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves" are both fantastic songs with great beats and some really clever social commentary. For example, "They see a black man with a white woman at the top floor, they gone come to kill King Kong." That's a brilliant line, and both songs are packed full of awesome lines like that. "Hold My Liquor" is a-whole-nother level of genius. It's sad and funny and angry and the music is perfect and the features from Bon Iver and Chief Keef are superb, and it's all around great. But the real crown-jewel of Yeezus is "Blood on the Leaves." It is a six minute tour de force with the greatest Nina Simone sample pretty much ever and the best beat drop in the history of music. Like in all of music, there isn't a beat drop as good as the one in "Blood on the Leaves." In my honest opinion, it is the second best Kanye song. Plain and simple. Hell, if the record were just those four songs - it would be the greatest EP ever released.

But it isn't. Unfortunately there are six very, very not good songs mixed with four classics and it results in a discomforting forty minutes of music. Sure, some of the album is excellent, but most of it isn't. It's like if you set a bin full of Louis Vuitton clothes on fire. There might be some nice stuff in there, but at the end of the day it's still a fucking garbage fire. There's no minimizing that.

7. The Life of Pablo (2016)

"I miss the old Kanye."

The Life of Pablo (TLOP), much like that album cover, is a goddamn mess. But it's a mess with beautiful bookends. "Ultralight Beam" and "Saint Pablo" are, respectively, the best first and last song on any Kanye album. They're beyond brilliant, and if someone were to play them for you and then say, "Now imagine what's in between," you would understandably lose your shit. Because they're amazing. They are the King's Hawaiian buns of music. Hell if you heard them and then some other songs from within TLOP (songs like "Waves," "Famous," and "FML") you might think you've got a pretty good turkey sandwich there in between those King's Hawaiian rolls.

But if you were to take a nice bite of that sandwich you'd quickly realize there's a lot more there than turkey and sweet buns. It's full of rotten tuna and pieces of glass and for some reason the cheese is actually just baby wipes. Those nice parts of the sandwich lured you in and now the rest of it, the substance in between the buns, is wreaking havoc on your senses. It's nasty.

That's basically The Life of Pablo. The vast majority of it is nasty. No one in their right mind goes out of their way to listen to "Feedback," "Low Lights," "Highlights," Freestyle 4," "Frank's Track," "Siiiiiiiiilver Surffffeeeeer Intermission," or "30 Hours." I understand the allure of "Wolves" and "Real Friends," and even "Facts (Charlie Heat Version)" to some degree, but they're still just like the barbecue sauce on an irredeemable sandwich. It is the most schizophrenic mashup of songs and samples since whenever the last album put out by Culture Club was.

It also really isn't a Kanye West album. Over 40% of the album's run time is sampled vocals and guest features (many of which are wildly impressive, like Chance the Rapper's, Kendrick Lamar's, and Sampha's). However, that means less than 60% of the album is actually Kanye. He only has two songs where he does all of the vocals and they only run just over three minutes combined. That's pretty astonishing considering the album is sixty-six minutes long. So what does TLOP  bring to the table?

Not much. It's a cluster of soul samples, moody bass beats, and half-assed lyricism. It feels unfinished, like it could change into something else any minute, and that's kind of the point. Kanye called it a living piece of art, and he did in fact change it multiple times after its release. The best change was the addition of "Saint Pablo," but even that couldn't salvage the project. In the end it's a draining twenty songs, some of which are great, some are even top tier Yeezy. But it's an album that requires you to put it on a plate and dissect it with a fork and knife, taking the best parts from it, because god forbid you try to eat the whole thing at once.

6. ye (2018)

"I think this is the part where I'm supposed to say somethin' good to compensate it so it doesn't come off bad. But sometimes I think really bad things. Really, really, really bad things."

Where to begin... So Kanye West disappeared from the lime-light for a few years and holed up in Wyoming, then he came back out to release five albums he did the music for (including this one) and went on a social media tirade supporting Donald Trump and saying slavery was a choice. Yeah, it was crazy. If you didn't like Kanye this gave you more reason to feel that way, and if you did like Kanye (like myself) it was difficult to get past. I feared this album was going to be more of the same. More "free thought" nonsense. More Yeezus. More Pablo. I was wrong.

ye is just seven songs long, clocking in at twenty-four minutes, and best believe - it feels like it's twenty-four minutes long. It's short. But it's not sweet. It's not sour or bitter or whatever the opposite of sweet in this case is either. It's just not sweet. It confirms a long standing theory I've had that Kanye suffers from bipolar disorder, and while there are some less great songs (looking at you "Yikes"), most of the album is well-structured and catchy. Beyond being catchy, it's sad. Not like actively depressing, but in a more therapeutic, nostalgic way. "I Thought About Killing You" leads us into the album with a few minutes of suicidal spoken word poetry, and the album concludes with "Violent Crimes," a track where Kanye raps about how having children has changed his views and life (a little corny, I admit, but also kind of moving.) Both songs are dark and sad, but also longing for happiness in a really powerful way.

The three middle songs: "All Mine," "Wouldn't Leave," and "No Mistakes" are slightly more upbeat, but for love songs they're still pretty dark. Rapping into Ty Dolla $ign's chorus, West sings, "One and one is two, but me and you - that's infinity - I don't feel like she's mine enough!" The whole album aches, and the first time I listened to it I heard it as a cry for help. It's a testimonial, a sort of still living self-eulogy.

And that eulogy has a heart and soul. It's called "Ghost Town." That song, beautifully orchestrated and perfectly performed, is an instant classic. A top ten Kanye song, and one of the few late in his career that brings tears to my eyes. Without "Ghost Town" the whole album falls apart, but with it, it becomes a short, sad testimony and a plea for something better.

5. Graduation (2007)

"You ever wonder what it all really means? You wonder if you'll ever find your dreams?"

If you're an American and you don't listen to Kanye West, and you claim, "I've never even heard a song by him," then I want you to know two things. First of all, you aren't edgy. You're just missing out. Second of all, stop saying that, because you're wrong. I'm serious. Not only do I know you've heard a West song, I know you've heard a West song from this album. Because everyone has. 

Graduation is stadium music. Every song is an anthem for the youth, and if you lived in the free world during or after 2007 then you've heard at least one of the songs from this album. The final album in Yeezy's college trilogy is packed full of bangers. Five of its tracks were released as singles. That's more than a third of the album! And there are still plenty of amazing songs that weren't singles, such as "Good Morning," "The Glory," and "I Wonder."

You know that Daft Punk song you can't quite nail the chorus of, but it goes something like "Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger?" Well the chorus actually goes, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," and the reason people know that is because Kanye sampled the chorus for this album. You know that infamous hook you've heard a million times but you're not quite sure where, "LAAAA! LAAA! LA-LA! Wait till I get my money right!" That's also from this album. My point is basically this, you've heard these songs before. You probably didn't even know they were Kanye songs, but they were. This album put him on a peak. He was everywhere, and everywhere he was, these songs were playing. As Kanye raps near the end of the album, "I told Jay I did a song with Coldplay. Next thing I know he got a song with Coldplay."

Graduation is a party, and pretty much every song on it rocks. So why is it in my bottom half of Kanye albums? Well because it's frustratingly repetitive. "Barry Bonds" and "Drunk and Hot Girls" are some top contenders for the worst two tracks on any Kanye album in a row, a small hitch in an otherwise consistent album. And sure, I love that consistency (and "Homecoming" is in my top ten Yeezy tracks), but is it anything more than fun? No, not really. It's good to dance to. It's even better to run to. It makes you feel like anything is possible and it's nothing but a celebration of being at the top of the world. Graduation is about celebrating the climb to the top and it relishes in the bliss of victory for a moment, but without touching on the downsides of fame and glamour it remains far from the top of this list.  

4. The College Dropout (2004)

"Take 'em to church."

Ah. Now this is classic Kanye West. From the "School Spirit" skits to the soul-chopped beats and God loving lyrics. Every part of this album feels like a vintage hip-hop record. The number of catchy songs on The College Dropout is truly remarkable and the music for every song is etched into my brain. It's a small wonder that the first twenty songs on the album only total sixty-three minutes (the 21st and final song is a grand thirteen minutes), because it feels like a journey when you're listening to it all the way through. A great, soulful journey.

The College Dropout is structured so that skits paint a picture of Kanye, the college dropout himself, in between the songs. I'll admit the skits aren't great and don't even work together as a whole, but the music in between them is just so good. There are no complaints about "All Falls Down," "Jesus Walks," "Slow Jamz," "Through the Wire," and "Family Business." The latter two songs are in fact two of the greatest back to back songs on any of his records. Even the songs I tend not to listen to regularly like "We Don't Care" and "Never Let Me Down" are wickedly good. The simple fact is The College Dropout, while musically varied, is one of the strongest and most consistent hip-hop records ever made. Truly. 

And can I talk about something for a minute? No, it isn't the fact that a producer turned rapper spat some of his greatest lines on his first album ("We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom." Or... "My flow is in the pocket like wallets, I got the bounce like hydraulics. I can't call it. I got the swerve like alcohol-ics.") And no, it isn't about how great the features on this album were. Although, J. Ivy's sermon on "Never Let Me Down" is ten out of ten, as is Twista's verse on "Slow Jamz." No, the thing I want to talk about is Kanye West spitting one of the greatest hip-hop songs of the 2000's with a goddamn broken jaw.

"Through the Wire" remains a staple of his discography not just because the samples are so soulful, but because he literally delivered four minutes of lyrics with his mouth wired shut. The College Dropout showed West was a man so deeply devoted to his craft that even a near fatal car accident couldn't stop him from putting greatness on record. "But I'm a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph, make music that's fire, spit my soul through the wire," he raps. That's a classic line, from a classic song, off a classic album. And, better yet, it was his debut. That's just unbelievable.

3. 808s & Heartbreak (2008)

"You wanna check into the heartbreak hotel, but sorry, we're closed."

So much to my chagrin I can't write and listen to music at the same time. I know, you were thinking I was listening to these albums as I wrote this, but nope. I have to write in silence, otherwise I can't write at all. It's heartbreaking, truthfully. But here's the thing, if there's one album I could never even try to listen to while writing it's 808s & Heartbreak. Because it's pretty much impossible to write while dancing, singing, and crying. And this album guarantees all three.

I feel like 808s is a severely underrated album. As in, no one wants to listen to it casually cause it makes you sad, very sad, and also no one wants to say it's one of their favorite Kanye albums because it's not a rap album. It's an autotuned, 808 drum heavy, pop album with twelve beautiful tracks that sound like nothing else in Kanye West's discography. It invented the pop/hip-hop lovesick genre that now dominates the charts with artists like The Weeknd and Drake. The influence of 808s & Heartbreak cannot be understated, and as a music nerd myself, that makes the album even more endearing to me. But the best part of the album isn't its influence, it's that it's just really fucking good. 

Like this album is amazing. For a long time (too long) I had this album near the bottom of my Kanye ranking, then I had my heart broken, and I tell ya, this album took on a new life. "Heartless," "Amazing," "Love Lockdown," "Paranoid," and "RoboCop" all encapsulate perfect dance/sing-along pop tracks, but they're also muted and depressing. For me, they represent that crippling feeling of lifelessness that's attached to heartbreak. The feeling that takes the joy out of everyday things like singing and dancing. That's a powerful emotion and for a song, let alone five in a row, to capture that is breathtaking.

It must also be said that "Bad News," "See You In My Nightmares," and "Coldest Winter" are the three most underrated songs Kanye has ever made. They spiral down, down, down, into a dark place near the end of the album. I often overlook them myself because of how dark they are, but once you start to listen to any of them you can't stop. They hook you and drag you down with them. Maybe you don't enjoy that. I completely understand and may even agree with you. But you better bet I damn well respect his artistry for being able to do that.

The two stand-out songs on this album, the ones that bring me to tears almost every time, are "Street Lights" and "Pinocchio Story." Not only are the songs musically dark and daunting, the doleful lyrics are the best they ever were. Take these for example:

• "Let me know. Do I still got time to grow? Things ain't always set in stone. That be known let me know. Let me... Seems like street lights, glowing, happen to be just like moments, passing, in front of me. So I hopped in the cab and I paid my fare. See I know my destination, but I'm just not there."
• "There is no Gucci I could buy. There is Louis Vuitton to put on. There is no YSL that they could sell... to get my heart out of this hell and my mind out of this jail. There is no clothes that I could buy... that could turn back the time..."

These songs are so dark, they so encapsulate what it means to be broken down and destroyed. The are in and of themselves mourning. This whole album is a testament to the power of heartbreak and it deserves and demands every ounce of our minds, hearts, and souls.

2. Late Registration (2005)

"We takin' these mothafuckers back to school."

Is it blasphemous to rank Late Registration higher than its older brother The College Dropout? Maybe. Is it a better album? Absolutely. Definitely. Yes. In fact, it's shy of being the best Kanye album by only three songs. I'm serious. Three.

So allow me to start with those three songs, the reason it isn't the best Kanye West album. Those three songs are "Drive Slow," "We Major," and "Crack Music." Now those songs are awful, really awful, and fucking abhorrent, in that order. The lazy rhymes over less than stellar beats are a major detour from the the rest of the album, one of R&B, hip-hop fused with jazz, and heavy orchestration, recorded with (and I kid you not) a twenty-piece orchestra. Besides those three songs Late Registration is a work of art.

Seriously, every other song on the album is amazing. Some like "Gold Digger," "Hey Mama," and "Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix)" are beyond amazing, they're goddamn extraordinary. Bringing Jay-Z out of retirement (of which he was in at the time) to give one of the best guest verses of his career on "Sierra Leone (Remix)" is a high point in an already high-flying album. The record is thankfully touched with some of early Kanye's raw emotion when he gets sentimental on "Hey Mama" and "Roses," songs dedicated to the family that raised him. The album is also super fun. Like there are some songs that are an outrageously good time, and West uses awesome guest features to excel those songs to another level (i.e. Adam Levine, Lupe Fiasco, and Brandy).

Maybe it's just me, but I think this album is not only the most accessible album by Kanye West, it's also the most versatile and varied. Some songs are piano riffing slow jazz, others are loud celebrations backed by drums and horns. Some songs deal with heavy subject material like "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," and others are just meant to have a good time, like "Touch the Sky." There is something for everyone on this album, and yet it still all works perfectly together as a cohesive unit. (Well, nearly perfect.)

Oh! And the skits rock. They achieve what The College Dropout aimed to do. Anyway, it is a near perfect album with everything you could ever wish for from someone's second album, and it's simply not in the top spot because of three songs. Well, and also the fact that the best Kanye West album is just one of the best albums ever made, period. There's also that small detail.

1. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

"That's one hell of a life."

There's only one way to break down a masterpiece, only one way to absorb such a magnificent work of art, and that's piece by piece, portion by portion. And Kanye West's confessional (and in his words "apology") for a life of hedonism, sex, drugs, rap, stardom, and wealth is just that - a masterpiece. So let's look at it part for part, track for track.

1. Dark Fantasy - "Yes, it's awful, blasted, boring. Twisted fictions, sick addiction. Well gather round children, zip it, listen!" Nicki Minaj says this through gritted teeth in a very real sounding British accent right at the beginning of the album. They're beautiful opening lines and the whole song encapsulates what is to come. Something twisted, something sick. This is a stellar intro song (and also a great movie trailer song), and unlike "Ultralight Beam" it sets the bar insanely high without overshadowing the rest of the album. 
2. Gorgeous - This would be the best song on pretty much any other Kanye West album. Kid Cudi provides a gloomy hook and after three All-Star verses by West himself, Raekwon of Wu-Tang fame spits a great fourth verse. It is such a good rap song it could be a model for how rap should be done. And yet, it's in the bottom half of songs on the album. I'd like to reiterate that this has nothing to do with the quality of the song, but rather the fire power the rest of the record brings. This track is killer and shouldn't be forgotten.
3. Power - "No one man should have all that power" is basically the tagline for this entire album. The song is an anthem (that rivals any from Graduation). This solo Kanye song is so good there's an entire album cover dedicated to it. It's so Ozymandian in nature the track is basically the Walter White of music. It's an ego-fueled song, building up to what is largely considered the whole point of the album - Kanye singing, "Now this will be a beautiful death... You got the power to let power go?" Maniacal laughter fades the song out as you realize that Kanye would rather burn this "perfect" life down than live in it.
4. All of the Lights (Interlude) - A truly beautiful minute long piano piece that just ties the whole first act of this album together and leads into one of Kanye's greatest songs ever.
5. All of the Lights - Famously, the song that Kanye worked on for over two years to make sure he got it just right. And believe me, he did. He got it very, very right. This song rivals "Power" for the best anthem on the album (and probably best in his whole discography). It's a goddamn miracle he got all of the music to work in this song. And I'm not exaggerating. He used nearly a full orchestra for it, with Elton John on piano, and features from Kid Cudi, Rihanna, Fergie, Alicia Keys, and Drake (singing only a single line!). And those aren't even all the people whose voices and music went into the song. It's a tribute to the brilliance of one man orchestrating so much talent, and it's a perfect showcase for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as a whole.
6. Monster - Oh boy! This song is so much fun! Besides the fact that it's all about how being a celebrity has turned Kanye (and the featured artists) into "motherfucking monsters." Besides that fact it's a lot of fun! Kanye deals up a funny and dark verse, Jay-Z does weird Jay-Z things on his verse, and then Nicki Minaj breaks into the global spotlight with the verse of her goddamn career. It's unbelievable. It's better than anything from her debut album (which happened to release the same day as MBDTF). She's a monster on this song. "You could be the King, but watch the Queen conquer." Yes, yes, yes.
7. So Appalled - Imagine getting your four best friends to come and do a song with you, then imagine you set the bar very, very, very high with the first verse, then imagine them topping that. Now imagine those four friends are Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z, Pusha T, and RZA (also of Wu-Tang fame). That's what this song is. Five greats battling it out over a scary dark beat and tone. And yet, none of them win. Cyhi the Prynce does. That's right. An unknown producer turned rapper (like Yeezy himself) snuck into the studio while Kanye was asleep and recorded the best verse on the whole song, and then edited it in. Kanye, just like everyone, loved it when he heard it, so he decided to keep it. Thank you for that Ye. We all need that Cyhi verse.
8. Devil in a New Dress - A song all about how lust and fame push Kanye away from his values and virtue and into the illustrious hands of sin and sex. Or something along those lines. It's about the "Devil in a New Dress," as the title would suggest, and really the only thing that needs to be said about this song (besides the fact that Kanye delivers the heart-aching line, "You love me for me? Could you be more phony?") is that Rick Ross murders his feature. He absolutely kills it. It's such a good rap song and like "Gorgeous" it's in the bottom half on the album.
9. Runaway - I won't even fucking lie. This is the best Kanye West song. Period. End of discussion. I won't argue with you about it. I've heard every reason why it isn't and they are all equally wrong. It simply is the best Kanye West song. That's why it exists. It's so good it brings me to tears. It's so amazing it inspired a thirty-five minute film for the song. It's so The Best Kanye West Song even my brother and I agree on this simple truth. Anyway. Yeah. That's pretty much all I have to say about this song.
10. Hell of a Life - If "Power" was striking the match, then "Hell of a Life" is the song where you hear Kanye just burn his whole life down. Nothing matters anymore. He'll get married in the bathroom, he'll worship "pussy and religion," he has, in fact, lost his mind. It's an insanely catchy song and it's also disgustingly hedonistic, which is the point. It may be the worst song on the album, which says a lot about the strength of the record, but it's still a really good, really underrated song. And once you get past the initial disgust and realize the purpose of the song it becomes even darker and more disturbing. 
11. Blame Game - So this song is eight minutes long, and that doesn't even really make sense considering there's only like three verses and then some Kanye/John Legend choruses. But it's that long because Kanye felt it was absolutely essential to give comedian Chris Rock over two and a half minutes of outro time on a song about a bad breakup to do a comedy sketch about Yeezy teaching women how to fuck. Yeah, I know that sounds wack as hell, but it's actually a surprisingly good outro. I know people who only listen to this song for the outro. I don't do that. I listen because it's super sad and John Legend has a beautiful voice, and I still get to laugh at the end. But yeah. It's a good song.
12. Lost in the World - This Bon Iver and Kanye West track is really the last song on the album, and it kicks off one hell of a finale. It's the last act in Kanye's Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. An act where he struggles to decide between living ("Run from the lights, run from the night, run for your life.") and dying ("I'm lost in the world, been down my whole life.") The beat goes hard, the lyrics will tear into you, and the only thing you'll be able to think is, "Wow, this really is beautiful, dark, and twisted." It finally forces you to lose the real world and give into the dark fantasy, and that's a really powerful journey. I fucking love that.
13. Who Will Survive in America - The actual final track on the album is a spoken word piece by Gil Scott-Heron lambasting the United States and its violent history of oppressing people of color. The words sting and the beat from "Lost in the World" beneath it pulsates with Scott-Heron's voice. It's raw shock and sweeping emotion lift you through the fantasy Kanye has just brought you into, before suddenly dropping you while Gil Scott-Heron shouts the ultimate question, "WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA? WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA?" A fitting end to a tragic album.

So, yeah. That's the best Kanye West album. A perfect orchestration of talent from Chris Rock to Elton John (with literally dozens of others in between) by a man whose lyricism and song-writing ability peaked above the talent he commanded. The best Kanye West exists outside the crowd, outside the classroom, outside the church, and lives on in his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Love it or hate it, it is a masterpiece. It's time we talk about that.